As is well known, biological muscle is an organ having the special function of motion-production, as well as the tissue of which such an organ is comprised. A biological muscle consists of modified, usually greatly-elongated, cells (called muscle fibers) which contract when stimulated. The so-called striated muscles, which in vertebrates constitute the principal part of the flesh, are in typical cases made up of fibers bound together into bundles and enclosed in a sheath of connective tissue (known as the perimysium) which is continuous with the tendons, or fasciae. Each fiber is enclosed in a delicate membrane (i.e., the sarcolemma), which exhibits alternate transverse layers or segments of lighter and darker material (whence the name) and contains many protoplasmic nuclei (known as muscle corpuscles). In higher vertetrates (including homo sapiens), all those muscles that are at least partly under control of the will are striated. Hence, striated muscles are commonly called voluntary muscles, while those that are nonstriated are called, conversely, involuntary muscles. Nonstraited muscles constitute a large part of the walls of the alimentary canal, blood vessels, uterus and bladder; also being found in the iris, skin and so forth. These are constituted of greatly-elongated, spindle-shaped cells with a central nucleus. The cells are usually grouped in bundles or sheets. Cardiac muscle, forming the substance of the heart of vertebrates and notable for its rhythmic contractions, is straited with its cells or fibers being extensively branched. In invertebrates, the muscle fibers exhibit varying degrees of differentiation and are, excepting in the Arthropoda, commonly unstriated.
As is also well known, the great preponderance of heretofore known robotic contrivances (including artificial limbs and other prosthetic contraptions) that have been developed to perform functions intended to simulate or be, perforce, substituted for the human or animal musculoskeletal system have, with almost overwhelming typicality thereabout, been literally completely-mechanical in nature. This is, in other words, to say that they have largely consisted of various assemblages of cables, pulleys, hydraulic and/or pneumatic cylinder and the like power drives and miscellaneous other items of hardware and implementation. It is not an unfair evaluation to characterize these previously-contrived mechanical creations as being, at best, relatively crude and primitive and not truly comparable attempts to simulate or even-reasonably-remotely replicate biological muscle.
Specifically representative and indicative of the sort of art that so far has been developed and is involved in the presently-contemplated field is that included in such items as: (A) U.S. Pat. No.: 439,193 which discloses a hoist comprising a hollow flexible tube that is wrapped in a sinuous fashion around several fixed spools in such a way that when a pressurized fluid is introduced into the tube it expands so as to cause such a shortening of and in its length as to suffice it for the lifting of a weight; (B) U.S. Pat. No.: 2,373,455 concerning a particularized style of hydraulically-implemented hoist, etc.; (c) U.S. Pat. No.: 2,483,088 which shows a knitted or woven tube used to reduce the shock of landing in a parachute wherein a small explosive charge produces the expansion of the tube; (D) U.S. Pat. No.: 2,545,947 involving a pneumatically-inflatable and -actuatable artificial hand; (E) U.S. Pat. No.: 3,050,152 pertaining to another sort of portable hoist including in its activating construction an inflatable, coiled flexible member which motivates the assembly when it is blown out to an uncoiled disposition; and (F) German Offenlegungsschrift (i.e., "OLS") No.: 2,106,516 which demonstrates a flexible lifting apparatus that functions by introducing a liquid or gaseous fluid, such as water or air, into the hollow center of an elastic tube which may be and preferably is encased in fabric causing the tube to balloon and thereby become sufficiently foreshortened to produce a lifting effect or operation.
Thus and notwithstanding, nothing that, even remotely, is overwhelmingly evident in prior art seems nor appears to realistically concern itself with the provision and/or ways and means for meeting the definite and recognizable need of making available a reliable and dependable system of providing a system for prosthetics and other robotic uses of providing truly skeletal-like movement and actuating capability that is amazingly analogous to and like biological muscle not only in contractibility and the like features but also in size, shape, weight, texture and so forth by any implementation as in the way so crucially indigenous as is in the present contribution to the art.